Formula Fed baby suffering terribly with wind, any advice?

[Rarfy]

Hi

I have posted before about my formula fed dd who suffers terribly with wind. I got some great advice and tried a couple of things but she is now 10 wks old and the problem is ongoing.

She has been awake from 2.30am last night where she had a 5 ounce bottle then has not gone back over as she has been writhing around since then pumping.

Every day she wakes us up straining to pump then letting out ginormous manly farts. There's not just one, it goes on for hours.

Anyone that holds her comments on her pumping all the time. My dm has had 5 dc and numerous dgc and has never come across it before.

So far we have tried:
Baby massage - hasn't done anything but she does enjoy it
Cycling her legs - helps release the farts occasionally
Infacol - this has definitely helped with the colic as i have tried to cut her down the last few days and she has gotten worse.
Colactase - this seemed to make the biggest difference in that she now enjoys a bottle and seemed to reduce the farting episodes slightly but nothing significant
Gaviscon - did nothing for dd
Cows milk allergy formula - did nothing for dd (although admittedly i didn't try it for long).

So now i want to change formula. She is on cow and gate first stage. I don't know which to move to though and admittedly dont want to keep chopping and changing.

I have heard good things about Hipp Organic and also comfort milk. Which one do i choose?

Fwiw the health visitors suggested baby massage and gp cows milk allergy both of which haven't helped. I also tried to BF dd but she wouldn't latch.

It's so sad seeing her uncomfortable.

Why not buy just one or two dr brown bottles and see how you get on. Yes you will have to wash and sterilise after each feed, but only for a day or so until you know whether they work.

I would definitely suggest changing bottles, sometimes it's just trail and error until you find the right one. Every baby is different so a bottle that works for some might not work for you.

My daughter struggled at first so my midwife told me to go to Tesco/Asda etc and pick up the cheapest bottle I could find. I went to Tesco got their own brand bottle for 90p and it worked amazingly!

I begrudged doing so as like you we spent so much on the MAM set but now she's 6 months and back on the MAM bottles so nothing went to waste!

I hope everything goes on for you soon!

Op if you do decide to change bottles, keep your eyes peeled on fb selling sites - there are often full sets of almost new bottles round here, then you can just get new teats x

You didn't give it nearly long enough with the hypo-allergenic milk!

She needs to be on it for at least three weeks before you assess whether it has improved things. This is very, very important, as if she does have an intolerance (which sounds more likely than an allergy), then continuing to feed her normal formula will damage her gut. This will result in lots more discomfort, immune problems and will leave her much more susceptible to other food intolerances and allergies.

Using a hypo-allergenic formula is not 'medicating' her. Three weeks is not a long time to try it. Please try it again.

Dr browns bottles! Buy a couple of new ones and then if they work, you can find decent second hand ones on Facebook marketplace for cheap. Just give them a good scrub, dishwasher and a sterilise like I did!

We use standard aptamil and Aldi formula btw.

You might need to try stage one and stage two teats of dr browns btw. The stage two kicks in around 3 months but both of mine switched around 2-2.5months.

Also, a friend lay her baby on his tummy to sleep ease the tummy pain. You'll need to be made of stern stuff but if you watch them, perhaps for a nap and see if it helps? (He had cmpa btw)

Dr Browns vented bottles really helped us (has TT previously and they were awful!). Also, swirling to mix formula not shaking!

Wind like this really is quite normal at this age, though very unpleasant. I'd maybe avoid switching milks etc as that can cause more problems than it solves.

You'd need more than four days on a milk to see if it worked. Two weeks at least really.

I just thought with it being trapped wind that i would see some difference after a couple of feeds on the aptamil pepti 1. As i say she doesn't seem to have enough symptoms or severe enough for it to be an allergy.

I might try a couple of dr browns that does seem more sensible tjan changing milk.

But it might not be 'just' trapped wind, that could well be a symptom of an wider intolerance. Your GP was obviously concerned enough to prescribe a medicated milk.

Excessive wind like this can be a clear symptom of CMPA, it's so common. They don't have to have other symptoms. You could just have a windy baby but if not and if it's left untreated it can be really sore for them and cause damage to the gut.

As you've already seen your GP would you not consider maybe going back for further advice? I'd bet they tell you you need to give prescribed milk far long than four days to work, it's not an immediate fix.

I agree with motheroftinydragons.

You have no idea it is 'just' trapped wind. You can't see what else is going on inside, and she is too tiny to tell you how she is feeling.

In any case, trapped wind can be very painful. Do you not think that you would like to alleviate that if you can? If you can do that just by switching formula, why wouldn't you?

Please follow your GP's medical advice, and do a proper trial of the hypoallergenic formula. You have nothing to lose if it turns out not to be CMPI. But you and your DD could gain a lot of relief, and a substantial lessening of the risks of gut damage, immune issues and durthwr intolerances/allergies if it is CMPI.

It was a duty dr i saw who originally suggested trying lactose free milk. She then consulted another dr and rang back and said try the aptamil pepti one and purchase it from the chemist. You can't purchase it so i had to get a prescription, they gave me a prescription for 1 half tin of milk. My pharmacist didnt stock it so we had to do a 16mile round trip to pick one up. I then had to request another prescription and ask my pharmacy to order it in. This time they prescribed two half tins. The pharmacy ordered in one. I dont want to rely on that.

Also she has no other symptoms and other than passing wind is quite a content baby. From what i read on the nhs site and all the official pages on cmpa it sounded like it wasnt a very common problem.

I'd also recommend Hipp Organic! DS has terrible wind and constipation in aptimal and was so much better when we swapped!

I do appreciate though that i would need to try the aptamil pepti one for much longer. She only gained the minimum weight in the two week period we switched to the aptamil for four days and that also concerned me.

That does sound inconvenient.

But do you really want to place your convenience over the comfort and long-term health of your child?

If the formula turns out to be needed, they will prescribe you at least a month's worth at a time. You would then only have to do the trip once a month. I used to get 16 tins at a time.

When you say not common, you are correct in that it is less than 5% of babies. But that doesn't mean your baby doesn't have it! To give you some perspective, I have a health condition that affects one in 250 people. So 99.6% of people don't have it. I do, though! What are the chances?!

You need to give this a proper try, for the sake of your child, even if it is a faff for you.

I have a child with numerous intolerances. Believe me, this is way more of a faff, on a daily basis, than a once-a- month trip to pick up some tins. If I could have avoided this, I certainly would have done. I would also have done (and did) anything I could to relieve my child's pain.

You may also be increasing your child's chance of developing allergies. One of my mum friends has a DD with airborne nut allergy. It is beyond terrifying.

I get that things are tough when you have a newborn, and the thought of adding in yet another job can be daunting. But you really must put yourself out on this for your child's sake.

Is passing a lot of wind really enough to suggest an allergy though? That's my main concern not so much tje prescription thing although i would be so worried if we ran out of milk and i had to revert back to an unsuitable one until some was available.

My other main concern was ruling cows milk out of her diet if not necessary it would become very difficult when weaning and i would be excluding something on the off chance.

It may help to share what symtoms your dc had which led to the diagnosis?

On the subject of CMPA i did consult another GP before taking dd off the aptimil pepti and her thoughts were that most babies go through the stage with wind and with her own dc she tried everything but as a couple upthread have said time is key and she was happy for me to stop and go back to cow and gate. The health visitor was also surprised the go to was cmpa before trying other things and actually queried using comfort milk altho a different health visitor told me not to but i can't remember her reasoning.

I am taking on board everything you are all saying and i think with the CMPA back in mind a will make another GP appointment with a GP i see more regularly and ask advice.

Could you try a Windi in the short term to help her release the wind whilst you get to the root of it? www.amazon.co.uk/Rotho-20409-Windi-Help-Babies/dp/B003U3J3FM/ref=asc_df_B003U3J3FM/?hvlocphy=9045538&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&psc=1&psc=1&hvnetw=g&hvadid=310856674931&hvpone&hvlocint&th=1&hvpos=1o1&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=pla-517155818524&hvrand=11625792798419843312

Never seen or heard of those before will take a look at them. Thanks.

We used Aptamil with our two and they didn't have excessive wind problems, the HV recommended that.

I have heard that aptamil and cow and gate are made by the same people in the same place just one is marketed as a 'higher end' formula for want of a better description. I did think about aptamil but after hearing that think not much point.

I’m not sure what you mean by pumping sorry but my son had awful awful wind as a baby. It was indeed CMPI and he’s still allergic 3 years later and generally has a very sensitive tummy.
We used MAM bottles, I didn’t find the Dr Browns any help at all but i know lots of people do. We found one in TKMax for £5 to try. We used a mix of gaviscon, gripe water and eventually neocate too.

My main question was to ask if the farts are on the foul smelling side? How is the poo? DS used to have people moving away from him

DD's farts dont smell at all. Her poo is yellow with little tiny lumps in it usually of a paste consistency and smells quite sweet. Sometimes it is a little runnier.

Oh and sorry pumping = farting. She farts like a bloke. I am always asking if it was dd or dp and it is pretty much constant.

Wish i hadn't tried cutting down on the infacol - have paid for it today!

@Daffydillo do u remember how quick it was for the new milk to help with the wind?

Was ur dc ever tested to confirm the diagnosis and if so what kind of test was it?